I've learned something about myself recently.
When I was younger, I had this thing for ballet dancers. I could always spot them -- the distinctive walk, the jeans over leotard, the hair pulled back in a bun. I wasn't sure why, since I really didn't (and don't) care much for ballet as an art form, and most of the ballet dancers I've met are snooty prima donnas that think they are simply the most important entity in the universe.
But still, they looked hot.
Later on, the personalities of the ballerinas I met, as well as the dance form itself, took much of the luster off their appeal. They also suffered from a sheer physical immaturity; I've always been attracted to older (often much older) women.
A few weeks ago, at one of the Stern Grove concerts, I was watching the cute photographer and the cute lady that helps handle the crowds, and noticed that both had their hair pulled back in either a ponytail or a sort of bun.
I began looking at other women and noticing the relationship between their hair and their attractiveness to me personally. It soon became obvious to me that women with their hair pulled back were more appealling than those with their hair around their faces.
I've always preferred straight hair -- even to the point of disliking very curly hair on women. (That gal from the peanuts always annoyed me -- I couldn't fathom why she would think that "naturally curly hair" would be a good think.)
Soledad O'Brien (formerly of The Site, and currently on some MSNBC psuedo-news show) has this great hair that just goes straight back over her head. The current model for Macy's Bridal department has similar hair. (Ignore, for the moment, that I would never be able to get close to her, on account of the gel required for that look would have me spewing just from the thought of touching it.)
If I were into men, Cactus Jack, from the movie Campus Man, would definitely do it -- he has similar hair. (If I cared enough about my own appearance to make the effort, that's how I would want to look.)
Okay, so I had this revelation that pulling one's hair back increases one's attractiveness to me. That, however, didn't explain why.
It just occurred to me that my father always brushed his hair straight back, but I don't think that has any real bearing on the matter -- I admire and respect him immensely, but I don't think I could ever be attracted to someone who wears a bow tie (even if he is one of the very few people who actually look good in one.)
My mother had straight hair, and often wore it in a bun, but I don't think I could ever, even in my wildest dreams, consider my mother personally attractive.
I do have somewhat curly (actually, more curvy than curly) hair, and I really do hate it, but since I never actually look at myself, I wonder how much of an effect that would have on my sense of beauty. (Also, at the time when I was forming my opinions of what looked good and what didn't, I had a very low opinion of my own appearance. (Now, of course, I just don't care.))
So where did this peculiarity of taste come from? The answer showed up in an unusual place -- a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar.
I'm not much into this sort of thing, and I certainly have no use for Sports Illustrated the magazine, but a friend happened to have a copy of the calendar that was a running joke at our game nights. The women, of course, were completely disinterested, but the guys (ranging from early thirties to nearly eighty) all made a show of examining each month's photo for artistic quality.
The July photo was somewhat misleading -- it appeared to show a woman with bountiful cleavage, but on closer inspection, she was really just lying down. More importantly, she was lying in water (presumably a lake or something similar), with her wet hair slicked back (much like Soledad O'Brien and the Macy's model.)
It hit me like a ton of bricks.
At the time when I was forming my opinions on female beauty, I was spending literally a lot of time (as much as eight hours a day) in swimming pools. (Specifically, Sava Pool, but that's another story.) I love the water and virtually all water sports; I have ever since I learned to swim.
I taught swimming, swam for fun, swam for exercise, was on the swim team in high school. I love canoeing, sea kayaking, and white water rafting. Sailing is a little too much work for my tastes, but it beats being on land. I've even paddled a picnic table. I've been SCUBA diving once, in a swimming pool, but someday I'll get into that heavily too.
Many of the girls that I was exposed to (so to speak) were other swimmers or swim instructors. Being a good swimmer was an important quality in a woman, and of course, swimmers, have wet hair. If it's long, you usually slick it back, ala Miss July.
And there you have it -- the source for part of my sense of beauty.
Of course, there are some anomalies. The best picture of Olivia Newton-John is the one on the cover of Clearly Love, where she has fairly curly hair. (But, she is wearing that killer jacket!) Meanwhile, the cover photo for Come On Over, where she is in the water with her hair up, does next to nothing for me.